Mitchell Johnson to compete with David Warner as Australia's 'most valuable' T20 player in IPL auction

Australian pace sensation Mitchell Johnson will reportedly compete with his Australian teammate David Warner as the country's most valuable Twenty20 player at next month's Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction following his successful return to the elite ranks of international cricket.

Warner has long been regarded as Australia's best player in the shortest form of the game but Johnson's stocks have risen in the eyes of IPL buyers after his bruising performances in the Ashes.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Johnson is tipped to fetch a 1.12 million-dollar price tag after his Ashes performance and could even go as high as 1.2 million dollars, with an IPL team director putting Johnson's name on top of his list of the five most sought after Australians- Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell.

The director said that Johnson is the only player among the Australians to get a serious price bid as he offers something nobody else does - hostility, adding that he is a premium player.

Finch's rapid improvement in the limited-overs scene has not gone unnoticed by IPL franchises, who ignored him at last year's auction, while Australia's emerging pace talent of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc will all nominate for the auction, along with Nathan Coulter-Nile, the report added.